


We'll Continue Searching in This Darkness

by Ennuiwolf



Category: ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream! AAside (Video Game)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Fluff, Gen, Head pats, Heart-to-Heart, Hurt and comfort, Insecurities, fixing up wounds, no beta we die like men, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ennuiwolf/pseuds/Ennuiwolf
Summary: When Ren once again injures himself, he open up to Wataru how he feels like a burden on him.
Relationships: Matoba Wataru & Nanahoshi Ren
Kudos: 17





	We'll Continue Searching in This Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Head pats
> 
> This prompt was given to me by the ever gracious karitonic over on the Argonavis Discord! I wrote this in a couple of hours based on this small prompt as I was suddenly in the mood to write brotherly WataRen!
> 
> Hope you guys like it!

Ren was a lot of things, and clumsy was an understatement.

Wataru could never understand how someone who seemed to be fairly able-bodied happened to injure himself so frequently. And it wasn’t through troubling events such as getting into fights or such, rather it was through regular events such as walking to class. Somehow, it amazed him at just how competent Ren seemed to be at tripping over his own feet.

However, the downside of it all was that Wataru often ended up having to comfort him and patch him up in the end.

Which was how the two of them found themselves in the share house, Wataru cleaning a deep gash in Ren’s arm as he attempted to comfort the teary vocalist.

“Seriously, Ren,” Wataru shook his head in slight exasperation. “I’m amazed by how you continue to do this to yourself.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Ren protested, hiding a small sniff as he wiped the tears from his right eye. “I just…lost my footing.”

“On a clear path with no obstacles,” Wataru pointed out. “You tripped over your own feet.”

Ren looked down. “S-sorry…”

Wataru sighed softly. “Don’t apologize,” he told him. “Not like you can help it.” He gave a small chuckle. “Just like I can’t help patching you up every time.”

He put the blood-stained washcloth away and leaned over to get some gauze to wrap the wound in. “Is it bad?” Ren squeaked.

He shook his head. “It looks worse than it is,” he informed. “And thank your lucky stars for that, because you could have been seriously hurt.”

Ren nodded softly, giving another sniff. “How’s your eye?” Wataru asked as he began to wrap the gauze around the younger’s arm. “Your contact fell out when you tripped, didn’t it?” Ren nodded silently once more. “Did you find it again? Or do you have a spare?”

“I-I have a spare…” Ren’s voice was quite small, causing Wataru to pause in his actions and raise an eyebrow.

“Ren?” the redhead asked. “Is something wrong?” Even for someone as soft spoken as him, he was being uncharacteristically quiet right now, and that worried the elder quite a bit.

Ren’s gaze fell to the floor, unable to meet Wataru’s eyes. “Ren,” Wataru urged once more. “I can’t read your mind. I won’t know what’s bothering you unless you tell me.”

Ren took a deep breath. “I…I just feel ashamed….” He admitted softly.

“Ashamed?” Wataru asked. “Why would you ever feel that?”

“Because all I do is get hurt!” Ren complained. “I’m such an idiot all I do is get hurt!” He gestured to the gauze bandage covering his arm. “And then you have to take care of me all the time. I’m ashamed because I’m always such an inconvenience to you!”

Wataru raised an eyebrow as he waited for Ren to finish. “I’m such a weakling…” Ren sniffed, and the other knew it wasn’t just because his contact had fallen out or that he had scraped his elbow.

The small smidge of annoyance Wataru had been feeling that arose out of worry vanished as he looked at Ren in front of him, head down and looking incredibly small and petite. He couldn’t help but give a large and audible sigh, causing Ren to look up at him. But when the vocalist raised his head, expecting irritation, but all he saw on the other’s face was a gentle smile, a kind of smile one would give to a child.

“Ren,” Wataru spoke. “You’re not a burden on any of us.”

Ren blinked. “I…I’m not?” he asked.

Wataru shook his head. “First of all, you’re not weak in any way,” he pointed out. “I don’t know anybody else who can sing for three hours straight without a single break, do you?”

Ren fidgeted with his hands in his lap. “N-Nayuta-kun does.”

The bassist considered it for a moment. “That’s true,” he agreed. “But forget that guy for a second,” he suggested.

Ren nodded in agreement as Wataru finished wrapping up his arm, readjusting himself so he was sitting beside Ren on the couch. “You’re not weak, because you throw yourself entirely into whatever you do, and you do it with never-ending energy,” he explained. “Whether it’s singing, which you can do for hours, or studying, which you keep doing even when you have trouble, or writing…you never give up. There’s a certain tenacity in you that all of us appreciate.”

Ren looked up. “Y-you think I’m tenacious?” he asked.

Wataru nodded. “So what if you’re a bit clumsy?” he responded. “It means nothing, and none of us mind taking care of you, because you’re our precious vocalist!” He smiled gently at Ren. “It’s that tenacity, that spirit in you, that inspires all of us. It inspired Kikyo and Banri to join us, and it inspired Yuto to not give up on us. It inspires me too, you know?”

“I…inspire…you?” Ren’s eyes were wide, as if he had never expected to hear this from the other, a fact which amused him.

The bassist nodded. “Of course you do,” he said matter-of-factly. “I want to write better lyrics for two reasons.” He held up his finger. “One, to match the level of Kikyo’s composition.” He held up another finger. “And two, to write lyrics you will love to sing. Because I know Ren will be singing my lyrics, I want to write the best lyrics I can to best convey our feelings as a band to the audience.”

A hint of a smile seemed to form on Ren’s lips, but somehow fell apart just as quickly, as Ren turned away from Wataru once more. “Still,” he said softly, trying to still the shake of his voice. “Wataru always wastes time looking after me.”

Wataru scoffed gently. “It’s not a waste of time,” he protested. “Like I said before, I don’t mind watching over you.”

“It’s not just now,” Ren continued, and Wataru stopped his protests to allow Ren to continue speaking. “Even back in Hokkaido, you were always looking after me.” Wataru was hit with the memory of the time Ren tripped over his feet similarly to now and he was forced to hold his hand to lead him to Submariner lest he get lost and fall into the ocean. “And then…even after DesFes…”

Ren trailed off, but Wataru couldn’t help but sigh as he caught onto what he was implying. “If you’re worried I came with you out of pity, that wasn’t it,” he gently informed. “I really did mean what I said, that I couldn’t leave you alone, but it wasn’t because I pitied you.” He took a deep breath. “To be completely honest, I came with you, because I needed your company too at that time.”

Ren stayed silent, so Wataru continued. “So you see, I and the rest of the band don’t see you as a burden when we have to take care of you like this. Sometimes…we need your company too. You have this…way…of putting us back on track, of clearing our minds and bringing our focus back to where it belongs.”

Ren blinked and Wataru gave him a grin. “You’re our precious vocalist, so we don’t mind when you trip and fall. Such things mean nothing compared to how much you do for us, and that’s not limited to being our vocalist.”

Light pink dusted Ren’s cheeks as he bashfully looked down. “You…you really mean that?” he asked.

Somehow, Wataru found his hand moving at its own will, and he found himself placing it on top of Ren’s head, fluffing his hair slightly and watching as his fingers got lost in his blue curls.

“I do,” he chuckled. “So cheer up, alright?”

“Um, Wataru?”

It took a moment for Wataru to process what he was doing, and he backed away with a start, removing his hand from the other’s hair.

“S-sorry, Ren,” he quickly apologized. He then sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, laughing lightly. “My…uh…brother used to do that to me all the time when we were kids,” he explained. “It never failed to cheer me up when I was feeling down, and I guess…it was just a habit…”

“Your brother?” Ren asked, looking at him with those big, confused eyes. “Does…that mean you see _me_ as a brother?”

Wataru found himself stumped by that question, however, he still took a moment to consider it, holding his chin in deep thought.

“I suppose, yeah,” he said after a couple of moments. “You _are_ like a little brother to me, I think.”

It seemed to have the desired effect, as a wide smile broke out on Ren’s face as his eyes shined with excitement. “Really?” he asked. “I’m like a brother to you?”

Wataru nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. “So don’t say you’re a burden to me, alright?” He ruffled Ren’s head once more and couldn’t help but think just how similar he and his pup were, and how petting Ren felt like petting a happy puppy. “After all, I don’t mind it, because we’re brothers.”

Wataru was forced to pull away when his phone vibrated with a text. “It’s Yu,” he informed Ren. “They’re waiting at the studio.” He cast a look at the vocalist’s bandaged hand. “Are you feeling okay to practice?”

It was almost cute, he thought, how quickly Ren jumped to his feet at the mention of practice, all thought of pain and aches and scrapes forgotten as singing overtook every other thought in his mind. “Of course!” he exclaimed. “I want to sing!”

Wataru gave a chuckle. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s go together, then, once you get your spare pair of contacts.”


End file.
